August 19, 2003; Eagle River, WI. -Ken Valeria and
Jordan Kurtti took big steps toward track championships Valeria's night began after Dan Zelten dominated heat number one for the WISSOTA Street Stocks. Valeria was paired with Fritz Scharf, the point co-leader entering the night, and three others in heat number two. Scharf drew a front row starting spot, passed pole sitter Chad Lederer and took the early lead. Valeria was quick to work his way into the second position, but Scharf was able to hold on and take the heat race win. Scharf led the points by one entering the feature and found himself on the pole,
alongside Valeria. On the start, Scharf drifted high and almost crowded Valeria into the
outside retaining wall. Valeria had to let off the throttle and Scharf took the lead into
turn one. Scharf's lead would be short-lived, however, as on lap two he got loose in turn
four and spun out. The spin put Ken Valeria in the front of the pack and that was all he
needed. The final 19 laps of the race were run under the green flag and Jordan Kurtti had the Super Bandit point lead once before this season, but mechanical problems in the 4-Cylinder Shootout took him out of the lead and had him scrambling to make up points the last couple weeks. Kurtti got the job done this week. In the Super Bandit heat race, he waived goodbye and watched the battle for second between Nick Warwick, Phil Malouf and Dustin Miller get smaller behind him. Kurtti came back for the combined Bandit/Super Bandit Feature and took the lead with a three-wide pass down the backstretch. Kurtti went on to dominate the race and take his third feature of the year. Meanwhile, Phil Malouf and Dustin Miller struggled, finishing sixth and seventh, respectively. With the sweep, Kurtti moved back in to the Super Bandit point lead, by one over Phil Malouf. In the WISSOTA Midwest Mods, Scott Anderson and Duane Dunbar highlighted the show once again. Anderson and Dunbar staged another one of their vintage side-by-side, nose to tail battles in the heat with Anderson holding on to take the win. In the feature, Dunbar took the lead on the green flag from the outside pole. Anderson started fifth, but it took a few laps for him to get to second. By that time, Dunbar had opened up an over four second advantage. Anderson began to chop away at the lead, but just as in last week's feature, he needed a couple more laps to put the pressure on Dunbar. Duane Dunbar scored his fifth feature victory of the season at Riverside, but trails Anderson by 57 points in the Midwest Mods. All Anderson has to do is gain one point on Duane Dunbar next week to clinch the track championship. In the Pure Stocks, Neil Slizewski and Pete Luedke had strong cars and went on to score heat race wins. In the feature, Mark Schuenemann got to the front of the pack early and dominated to earn his second feature victory of the season. In the points chase, the gap between Marlys Scharf and BJ Slizewski remained at six points. Slizewski finished third in his heat race, bettering Scharf by one spot. Scharf turned the tables in the feature, working her way up to fourth by the time the checkered flag flew, one spot better than Slizewski. Finally, in the Bandits, Heidi Diers won her third heat race of the season and was running well in the Bandit/Super Bandit feature, leading before Kurtti took her and James Williams three-wide for the lead. Diers encountered problems on lap 11, retired from the race and finished last. The good news for her is that Scott Scharf had a poor night as well, finishing fifth in the heat and eighth in the feature, leaving himself tied with Diers again for the Bandit point lead. Just two point nights remain at Riverside Raceway and four of the five classes are
coming down to the wire. Racing continues next Tuesday at Riverside and the Track
Championships will be determined on Sunday, August 31 on a thrilling night of racing,
which will include a Pure Stock special and fireworks. |
